RADLEY BALKO SAYS that they’re trying to sneak prohibition back in. (He’s got a longer paper on this here.)

I think that we ought to start a movement to lower the drinking age to 18, where it was before Liddy Dole and Nancy Reagan got involved. The best defense is a good offense.

THE NINTH CIRCUIT’S MACHINE GUN OPINION seems to be influencing people elsewhere in the nation.

MICKEY KAUS WRITES:

As Jeanne Cummings’ outstanding, worth-digging-up 12/2 Wall Street Journal piece makes clear, the new Democratic Party, for presidential purposes, isn’t the Democratic Party. It’s a just-formed group called America Votes, which plans to coordinate the various “independent” committees (many of the so-called “527” non-profits) that can still, after McCain-Feingold, gather unlimited “soft” donations and spend them on campaign ads and voter mobilization. … If the old Democratic Party version of the Democratic Party was too beholden to liberal interest groups, the new America Votes version of the Democratic Party is liberal interest groups.

There’s a larger lesson here. The one pretty clear effect of campaign finance “reform” has been to weaken traditional party structures to the benefit of discrete special interests. It’s not clear that this development has been good for politics, or even for honesty in politics. At best it produces only the appearance of honesty — and I’d say it’s failing even at that nowadays. (Hey, somebody should write a book on that!) But perhaps, as Kaus suggests (you should read his whole post), Internet fundraising will save us.

PERSONALLY, I THINK THAT SANTA SHOULD bring this kid a lump of coal.

A READER SENDS THIS PHOTO and this one of Bush actually serving turkey to the troops and says this explodes the pseudo scandal. Pseudo scandal?

Not knowing what he meant, I went looking and found this turkey story by Mike Allen in the Washington Post raising that issue (“the foray has opened new credibility questions”).

Yes, it has opened new credibility questions. But, er, not so much for Bush as for his critics. Sheesh.

UPDATE: More on “Turkeygate” here, here, here, here, here, and especially here. Meanwhile reader Elizabeth King emails:

I just read the Washington Post article you linked about the pseudo-turkey scandal (Or turkey pseudo-scandal. Or whatever. Pseudo-reporting scandal is more like it, I think.) I now have an urge to rant that I can’t bottle up anymore. You don’t have to read this, but I really need to say it.

I am SICK AND TIRED of our media. I am SICK AND TIRED of the superficial nature of their reporting on Iraq and their incessant preaching of quagmirism. I am SICK AND TIRED of their efforts to turn every U.S. military action into Vietnam, all facts to the contrary be damned. And I am SICK AND TIRED of 16-words-gate and Plame-gate and mission-accomplished-gate and now, God help us, turkey-gate.

We live in momentous times, and our media — the freest and most technologically advanced media in the history of the world — is mired in 60’s nostalgia, conspiracy theories and banality.

Sorry about the rant, but I feel better now.

And reader Susan Shepard emails:

I cannot believe this fabricated “flap” about Bush and the turkey. What are these people thinking of? I can’t imagine a bigger non-issue. Every time someone on the left or in the mainstream media starts in with something like this they just make themselves look more foolish. Surely sooner or later even less politically aware people have to stop and think, “Wait a minute, this is getting just a little too ridiculous.” I guess in the long run conservatives come out on top in such situations, but it is painful to watch people self-destruct, even people with whom I profoundly disagree.

I swear, I think Karl Rove must pay people to drum up stories like this. Or would that be to drumstick . . . nah, never mind.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Democrat Jeff Haws gets it:

I’m as quick to criticize Bush as anyone, but had anybody even seen that turkey photo before this “pseudo scandal” broke out over it? I know I hadn’t. If anyone’s opinion of Bush changed because they thought the turkey he held up in a photo looked rather tasty, that’s a sad state of affairs for the American electorate. Bush hypercritics will say it’s all about the White House trying to put forth an “image,” but they key sentence in that Post story is this: “The scene, which lasted just a few seconds, was not visible to a reporter who was there but was recorded by a pool photographer and described by officials yesterday in response to questions raised in Washington” (emphasis added).

I want to beat this guy in the next election. Latching onto issues such as what kind of turkey Bush is holding up will just polarize voters even more and assure his reelection. Not smart.

No, it isn’t.

MORE: A military reader sends this:

This turkey business is ludicrous. I’ve eaten in mess halls at Thanksgiving over the course of my nine years in the Army and I have always seen a fancy turkey that was for display and not for consumption. Like the cornucopias and every other festive trimming, the “show turkey” is a routine part of the presentation for the soldiers eating in the mess hall. When I saw this article on Drudge Report last night, I nearly choked. In the midst of everything important that is going, the fact that people find this newsworthy is simply stunning in its absurdity.

Indeed.

FINAL UPDATE: Definitive roundup here.

“TRANSBLOGRIFICATION” — Ralph Luker has a new blog, and has coined a cool new word.

EUGENE VOLOKH THINKS THAT Slate is being unfair to John Kerry. And to his wife.

ANTHRAX UPDATE: Science has big coverage of the anthrax attacks now, but you can’t read it unless you subscribe. But Derek Lowe has an interesting — and troubling — post. This deserves more attention.

PATRIOT ACT ABUSE? Sounds like it:

WASHINGTON — Critics of the Patriot Act (search) say the 2001 law, which was intended to enhance police powers to track terrorists, has recently been misused to investigate a political scandal in Las Vegas.

The same folks who warned that provisions in the Patriot Act are too far-reaching and could infringe on the civil liberties of regular Americans say the Las Vegas case is the first — but certainly not the last — example of federal law enforcement using its broadened surveillance powers to prosecute domestic criminals who do not threaten national security. . . .

According to an FBI official in Las Vegas, investigators used a provision in the Patriot Act that allows investigators easy access to the financial records of persons suspected of terrorism or money laundering.

Some experts say that technically speaking, the FBI had the authority to use the Patriot Act to expedite their case against the club owners. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t immediately raise red flags about the design of the Patriot Act, which Attorney General John Ashcroft has firmly insisted is for the sake of national security only.

This sort of abuse proves the critics right.

GEORGE MONBIOT is Fisked for some silly statements about oil.

“DARK GERMAN OUTLOOK ENCOURAGES GERMAN RESISTANCE: Underground War is Believed Likely if We Fail in Our Major Purposes.“ Read the whole thing. Excerpt:

One does not encounter the awareness of future problems among Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence officers in the United States zone which might be expected. Since the Army, or rather most o fits officers in Germany, persist in viewing everything connected with the occupation through rose-colored glasses, it is the opinion of this correspondent at least that incidents foreshadowing the growth of national resistance are not given their proper weight.

Attacks on anti-Nazi German editors now in charge of newspapers in the United States zone illustrate this tendency.

As mentioned in an earlier post, we tend to forget just how messy and drawn out the postwar experience in Germany was.

HERE’S AN ACADEMIC ARTICLE ON the role of weblogs in the Trent Lott affair, from Georgetown.

UPDATE: Read it together with this post by Jeff Jarvis on journalism in an age of transparency.

And, for proof, scroll down one item on Jarvis’s blog, as he catches some journalist-bloggers in a game of blog-telephone.

CHIEF WIGGLES WILL BE ON FOX TONIGHT, around 7 ET. Also, I understand that Brit Hume’s show will have a segment on the failure of English gun control, which should interest some.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing has posted some video grabs from the Fox story on Chief Wiggles here. Pretty cool stuff.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Austin Bay emails:

Chief Wiggles showed up on Brit Hume at 5:17pm CST. The chief warrant officer is another example of how small steps mount up. The trouble is, until the Internet, small steps beyond the ken of “the media culture” went unnoticed. I was listening to C-SPAN this morning and heard a Jackie Judd interview with Bono. Now that’s a changed man and he admitted it. He’s finally met conservatives who are as interested as he is in effective developmental aid in sub-Saharan Africa. Well, Bono my bro, those folks aren’t new to African aid – and now he knows that’s true. There are hundreds of “small step programs” that have made a difference, but they didn’t get the broad attention they deserve until…sheesh, until the Internet. Chief Wiggles shows you can make a difference with your own small developmental aid program. It’s great to see him on tv.

Yes, it is.

RUMSFELD’S AWARDS: It’s interesting what they report, and what they don’t.

BUSH HAS SIGNED THE NANOTECHNOLOGY BILL: Here’s the White House press release.

THE EXECUTIVE LIFE / CREDIT LYONNAIS SCANDAL looks likely to go to court:

US prosecutors said they would pursue a criminal probe into French bank Credit Lyonnais’ purchase of US insurer Executive Life and ruled out fresh settlement talks with France.

“Further discussions at this time would be unproductive and further delay could prejudice our investigation,” US Attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek said.

“Accordingly, we will now push forward toward a conclusion of our investigation. We expect there will be further announcements concerning this matter in the near future,” he said.

The move by exasperated US prosecutors could have dramatic consequences for the French Government, Credit Lyonnais and other French parties in the scandal as it opens the way for criminal charges to be filed against them.

Criminal charges that would lead to a long, complex and embarrassing trial or – more likely – to a plea bargain that could result in formally state-owned Credit Lyonnais losing its precious US banking licence.

Want to bet that some people who were all for the International Criminal Court will start talking about the importance of sovereignty and the likelihood that international prosecutions might be politically motivated?

And why is this story getting so little attention in the American media? It seems like a big deal to me, with significant implications. There’s more background here and here.

HOWARD BASHMAN NOTES that several blogs, including InstaPundit, are mentioned in this 9th Circuit opinion. The opinion is a dissent from denial of rehearing en banc on a case that Bashman had earlier mentioned here. The upshot: Libel immunity for bloggers regarding comments by others hasn’t been reduced, but several bloggers get mentioned. Win/win!

UPDATE: Andrew Lloyd notes: “That dissent doesn’t even define the word ‘blog’ — now THAT’S progress.”

THIS SEEMS LIKE GOOD NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN:

Afghanistan’s two main northern warlords handed over dozens of tanks and heavy guns Tuesday, putting aside their personal hostility and placing a measure of trust in the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. . . .

The weaponry was surrendered to the new Afghan National Army under a deal between the warlords brokered with the help of British peacekeepers.

Interesting.

THE BLOGGING OF THE PRESIDENT wants your thoughts on how the Internet is affecting the elections. Follow the link for more information.

RICH, BLOGGY GOODNESS: This week’s Carnival of the Vanities is up. Check out all sorts of posts from all sorts of bloggers, most of ’em more interesting than me!

OKAY, I’M OFFICIALLY PRONOUNCING THE PLAME SCANDAL BOGUS:

Former ambassador Joseph Wilson has been quite protective of his wife, Valerie Plame, in the weeks since her cover as a CIA operative was blown.

“My wife has made it very clear that — she has authorized me to say this — she would rather chop off her right arm than say anything to the press and she will not allow herself to be photographed,” he declared in October on “Meet the Press.”

But that was before Vanity Fair came calling.

The January issue features a two-page photo of Wilson and the woman the magazine calls “the most famous female spy in America,” a “slim 40-year-old with white-blond hair and a big, bright smile.” They are sitting in their Jaguar.

No word on whether she’s missing an arm. . . . Wilson says the pictures won’t identify her. Sorry — if you’re really an undercover spy, and really worried about national security, you don’t do this sort of thing. Unless, perhaps, you’re a self-promoter first, and a spy second. Or your husband is.

UPDATE: Reader Ira Ozarin emails:

I read the WashPost article via the Instapundit link. You neglected to point out an interesting detail in the article:

Plame may be the most well-known figure in a modern Washington scandal whose face is unknown. The Justice Department is now investigating which senior administration officials leaked Plame’s CIA role to columnist Robert Novak after Wilson began debunking President Bush’s State of the Union claim that Iraq had tried to buy “yellowcake” uranium from Niger. (my emphasis)

Do the Post people still not know that Bush never said anything about yellowcake and Niger in the State of the U address, or is that something we’re all supposed to just ‘know’ was true? Or maybe they just don’t fact-check anymore?

Sadly, I’m so used to seeing that that I didn’t even notice. Sigh. Sorry. Thanks to everyone (there were quite a few emails along these lines) who pointed it out.

Meanwhile a couple of readers wrote to say that Plame’s cover (assuming that there was one) has already been “blown,” so what’s the problem with doing an Vanity Fair spread. Hmm. It was “blown” in October, too, when she said she couldn’t be photographed. (And if the “it’s already blown” analysis applies, why the self-dramatizing stuff about how she can’t be recognized from these photos?)

Serious people don’t do self-promoting spreads in Vanity Fair where important questions of national security are involved. Self-promoters (Wilson is trying to pitch a book, the article reports) do. Not knowing the underlying facts, I have to make my judgment by the behavior of the parties. And judging from that, the scandal is bogus, and Wilson is a self-promoter who can’t be trusted. That’s my judgment on this matter. Yours, of course, may vary. But if you see Wilson as anything other than a cheesy opportunist, well, then yours really varies.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Robert Tagorda is a bit more measured:

Glenn proclaims the scandal “bogus.” Though I hesitate to sign on to the proclamation just yet, I frankly wouldn’t be surprised to learn down the line that the matter was overblown, given the Wilson couple’s act.

Here’s what irks me the most: Wilson claims that the White House leaked his wife’s identity for political reasons. Yet he’s using the scandal for similarly ignoble reasons, including book deals. To be sure, the leak is far more serious. But there’s something very unsettling about how Wilson criticizes the administration for inappropriately using intelligence when he himself fails to treat the matter with the delicacy it deserves.

I can understand if he’s railing against the Bush inner circle in the interest of exposing its alleged thuggery. I can also understand if Plame’s out in public and photographers just happen to snap a shot. But posing for a magazine, even if “disguised,” indicates a slimy agenda.

What he said.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Roger Simon weighs in: “Wilson, obviously, is no George Smiley–he’s more of a ‘Smiley George.'” [LATER: Lots of interesting comments on Simon’s post.]

MORE: A snarky reader points out that Bush was in Vanity Fair. Um, yeah, and I guess that would matter if he were, you know, claiming to have a secret identity or something.

MORE STILL: Slate’s “Whopper of the Week” (“Goodbye Plamegate”) has the photographs, which leave little to the imagination, and observes:

Plame’s extended striptease, enthusiastically touted by her husband, now has Chatterbox wondering how much of Wilson’s story to believe. (It also has Chatterbox wondering when the couple will start renting themselves out for birthday parties.)

Indeed. And if this were a serious matter, would they be acting that way?

STILL MORE: Tom Maguire says I told you so. He also notes that saying that Wilson is bogus isn’t quite the same as saying that the scandal is bogus. I guess that’s right, in theory. But the claim that Plame was endangered is what drove this scandal, and it came from Wilson, who seems to be, well, bogus. (Read this, too). I suppose it’s still theoretically possible that somebody in the White House deliberately and illegally outed Plame as a way of getting revenge on Wilson for his dumb — and deeply unprofessional — oped about his “mission” to Niger. But if you assume that nothing that Wilson says can be relied on because he’s a self-promoter who’ll stretch a fact to get attention, which seems extremely plausible, then you’re not left with much evidence. And the Wilson/Plame couple certainly isn’t acting like Plame’s life is in danger. They’re acting like opportunists milking their 15 minutes and hoping for a lucrative book contract. So pardon me if I conclude that their actions speak louder than Wilson’s words.

This is deeply disappointing to the people who were entertaining an almost-religious faith that this would be the scandal that would bring down Bush. But such disappointments seem to be their lot.

REPUBLICAN BUT NOT CONSERVATIVE? Here’s another take on the whole “South Park Republican” issue, from Popshot magazine.

DEREK LOWE comments on the Eric Drexler / Richard Smalley nanotechnology debate mentioned here earlier:

As a chemist, I’ve more than a passing interest in this field. Nanotechnology is chemistry, through and through. It’s done (going to be done, I should say, if Drexler’s right) by other means than the ones I’m used to, but it’s atoms and bonds all the way. As a solution-phase classical organic chemist, I look on the advent of what Drexler calls “machine-phase” synthesis with equal parts anticipation and dread. The dread isn’t because of some looming catastrophe, just the fear that I’ll eventually be invented out of a job.

It’s those damn robots again. . . . He promises a longer post in the near future, which I look forward to reading.

WINDS OF CHANGE has a roundup of African stories that you probably haven’t seen elsewhere. And there’s a link to BlogAfrica, a collection of African blogs.

ROBOT NATION: My TechCentralStation column is up. ” It’s easy to point out that people have been predicting the end of employment due to automation for a century or two now, and that so far they’ve been utterly wrong. But, of course, to say that they’ve been wrong so far isn’t the same as saying that they’ll be wrong forever.”